Mr. Manoharan Aachary
Place: Haripad, Alappuzha, Kerala, India.

A traditional carpenter and contract worker, he started making Edakoodam some ten years back. For Manoharan, making these Edakoodams' began as a coincidence. He had a friend whose father used to make these types of wooden toys and puzzles. Once on his visit to his friend's house, he had seen him doing the wooden puzzles. When he tried his hands on it, he realized that it is a challenging interlocking game consisting of notched sticks.

Mr. Manoharan has made different varieties of puzzles in different shapes and sizes. Each of the puzzles he made with extra care so that they don't lose their symmetry. That's why they never lose their interlocking properties. Observing and doing it is not that helpful. He experimented and researched a lot with these puzzles and learned more about them only when he practiced.

For this wooden puzzle maker, a puzzle is more than a passion. He is on a mission to bring these wooden playmates back to life for the future generation and to reduce the amount of plastic waste accumulated because of using plastic toys. It takes one to seven days to do a puzzle; as it is handmade, different pieces have to be made and checked for joining them for a good fit. The puzzle 'Saraswatipedom,' where one part could be divided into four, is the most difficult to create. As he mentions, it took him around seven days to complete.

Before advancing technology, children were encouraged to play with these toys made from wood, which also helped improve their concentration. There used to be a time when children in every household used to play with these Edakoodam'. An alternative to the Rubik's Cube, this wooden puzzle has properties of increasing memory and has the additional quality of being eco-friendly is once again making a comeback. Manoharan's design consists of three to 25 interlocking pieces. Currently, he is working on a new puzzle model, which will be made in a single wood piece and can be divided. Besides this, he also teaches people who want to learn puzzle making.